By the time I got back from Valencia last night, it was about 9.30 pm so I stayed with a friend as it was too late for me to come up to La Moran from a security and courtesy point of view. Then today I went down to La Guaira on the coast with a couple of friends to meet with a group of people in Macuto (local government, NGO – Libros para Crecer and members of the community) to discuss the need for libraries and Early Childhood Centres in Edo Vargas. 
Vargas was the state worst affected by the landslides at the end of 1999, which killed many thousands of people and destroyed many communities. One of the consequences was that all of the libraries in the state were destroyed or damaged and 5 of the 11 parishes are still without any library facilities of any description. Vargas has an approx population of 350,000 and the Macuto parish, where we held the meeting, has about 20,000 people. The NGO and members of the community launched a campaign in 2008 to collect 10,000 books, which was very successful but there is no library facility. In the meantime they are circulating books in bags with small collections of 5 books per bag that ate then exchaged fir a diierent collection.
We managed to fit in a late lunch at Las Quince Letras (count the letters!), overlooking the sea, before heading back to Caracas and up those stairs again on a very hot day!
